Manufacture of belting.



No. 853,567. EATENTED MAY 14, 1907 E. A. USINA.

MANUFAGTURB OF BELTING.

APPLIOATZGH FILED Hm: 2 SHTSSHBBT 1.

FIG. it

WiTNESSES:

wfig 5mm,

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

MANUFACTURE OF BELTING.

To all whom it may concern: 7

Be it known that I, Ennuno A. Usnu, a citizen of the United States, residing at Newtonville, in the county State of Massachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Manufacture of Belting, of which the following is a specification.

This invention aims to provide an improved method of manufacturing belti which avoids much of the expense involviis in the present method of manufacture, and many of the disadvantages inherent in the style of belting now generally used.

The invention applies more particularly to leather belting of the style used in driving machinery, and the like, though it is not limited thereto.

In ordinary leather belting the hides are cut into strips of the width of the belting and the ends are is pod and, ordinarily, cement ed together. The strips can never be more than about six feet long. The lapped ends of the strip have to be carefully tapered off by hand. The amount of lap is ordinarily equal to the width of the belt, so that in 12- inch belting the efiective. length of the sections is only about five feet. There has not yet been found'a cement which will stand the continual bending and pulling strain to which the lap is subjected, especially in damp situations such as dye houses or bleacheries. Various expedients' have been resorted to in order to overcome this difiiculty, Metallic fasteners instead of cemented and link beltingformed of short oblong pieces of leather arran ed on edge, have been used to some extent, ut have not superseded the leaped and cemented belts.

ccording to this invention a plurality of sheets of the belting material are united, and the belting then cut from the united sheets, Preferably the sheets are fastened together, as by cenientin another, and be ting cut off from the knife or saw or other cutting too, which asses through the pile and cuts in any desired direction, the product being made up of pieces of the belting material fastened together with their out edges forming the faces of the belting. The path along winch the cutting tool progresses may be spiral or back and forth in any desired directions, so as to out from the pile strips which are very much 55 longer than the length of the pile or of the iie by a Specification of Letters Patent. Application filed November 28! 199$; Serial No. 289,69Q-

cl Middlesex and r as. they are piled one upon Patented ma 14, 1907.

individual sheets of material (hides in the case of leather belting). Preferably cement is used to fasten the sheets together, as it sets firmly at all points of the sheet, and puts no limitations upon the cutting tool as to its direction or the manner of use. Cement is sufficient for such a belting in which the joints run lengthwise of the belt, so that they are subiect to no appreciable lengthwise strain. Pre erably for leather belting only the flesh portion of the hides is used. The outer si e of the hides can be split oil and possesses a higher value because of its finish, whereas the fleshy side has the greater strength and is better ada ted for use in belts. Since b this metho of manufacture the thickness oi the belt is dependent only on the width of the individual strips of which it is composed, the removal of the outer smooth side of the hide lessens the cost of the mateigall, and at the same time produces a stronger A great advantage of the process is in the possibility of makln belts of any desired thickness, the only di erence in cost being in the quantity of material used.

.Thework may be ex edited by using a gang of cutters instead 0 a sin le cutter. In order to make belts of an 7 esired length with one straight out, the s 'eets maybe ar ranged in along ile, sucoessivesheets of any particular layer eing arranged with their ends overlapping, and the ioints in the successive layers being broken. When such a continuous pile is formed and a strip of helting is out therefrom, the belting will be formed of strips as in cussed above, ut jointed, the joints of adjacent strips being stag ered.

Other features of advantage are referred to in detail hereinafter.

The accompanying drawings illustrate an embodiment of the invention.

Fi res 1 and 2 are plans, and Fi 3 a longitu inal section of a pile of hides; ig. 4 is a perspective view of a piece of belting cut therefrom; Fi 5 is a similar view of an endless belt whic may also be made by this rocess; Fig. 6 is a transverse section of the siting on a larger scale; Fig. 7 is a perspective e an alternative manner of uniting two ends of a belt.

Referring to the embodiment of the invention illustrated, a number of hides A, either complete or with the outer portions removed end to end the original case disso as to leave only the fleshy side, are formed into a pile B, the depth corresponding to the width of the belting desired. Cement is distributed thoroughly between the successive hides. Preferably the sheets are pressed together so as to cause a firm cementing thereof. When the successive hides are firmly united, or while they are held together in a press, the belting is cut therefrom, as for example by means of a knife or saw or other cutting tool 0, which progresses in the direction of the arrow in Figs. 1 and 2. For thepurpose of obtaining a belt longer than the individual hides, the cutting tool C may travel back and forth in any desired manner. For example the belt may be cut from the ile in a proximately a spiral, as shown in ig. 1. T 1e length may be practically anything desired, or the belting may be made in a single continuous strip which shall use up the entire pile of hides, and may then be cut off into lengths to suit. Fig. 4 shows a finished belt D without transverse joints between its ends. The ends E may be cut on a ta er as shown, by the cutting tool, and may e cemented or fastened with metallic fasteners or otherwise. Thus instead of a number of transverse joints, the belt will have only a single such joint. Or a belt such as F (Fig. 5) may be produced by suitably directing the cutting tool (l to cut first the outer periphery forming a closed figure, and afterward the inner periphery parallel thereto. Obviously such a belt may be made more than twice as long as the hide, and by introducing convolutions in the path of movement of the cutting tool, the length of the belt ma be extended indefinitely. This capacity or making a belt which shall be absolutely endless and without transverse joints, marks in my opinion an immense advance in the art.

In the enlarged view, Fi 6, are shown more clearly the edges G o the individual strips or pieces H of material forming the faces of the belt and, by a heavy line, the cement J between the successive strips. The width of the several ieces H constituting the belting, will depend upon the thicknesses of the original sheets. They are not necessarily the same. Any sound stock may be used, either of whole hides or the fleshy portion of split hides, or of any. combination thereof. For example, the end pieces H may have on their outer faces the smooth side of the hide, while all the intermediate pieces may be made solely of the fleshy ortion of the hide. The thickness of the elt and its flexibility depend upon the widths of the individual pieces H.

In the manufacture of belts by the ordinary method, not more than 5 O per cent of the hide can be used. By the present method it is possible to utilize per cent or more of each hide. At the same time the new belt is cheaper as well as more durable than the old.

ouowu a The cut edges of the hide can be finished to have the same appearance as the surface of the leather if desired.

By the term cuttin as used herein, I mean to include the dividin of the material by any suitable means. T ere are several styles of leather working machiner which can be used for the purpose. In t 0 term beltin I mean to include any article made 0 pieces of belting material fastened together with cut edges forming a face of the article.

Fi 2 illustrates the use of a gang of cutters L moving together and cutting a number of pieces of beltin at once. This figure, in connection with F; 3, also shows the mannor of piling the s eets to secure ieces of belting of any desired length. T e lower layer of sheets A are jointed transversely of the pile, as at K. The next layer is similarly jointed, the joints bein staggered relatively to the lower layer. Tie joints K, K &c., extend transversely across the sheets, and are preferably beveled and overlapped and cemented.

Instead of the beveled and cemented ends E indicated in Fig. 4, the connection between the ends ofthe belt may be made by a series of ton ues L (Fig. 7) extending from one end of the elt into the grooves formed by tongues L from the opposite end. The parts may be cemented together or fastened with metallic fasteners.

Therefore though I have described with great particularity of detail certain specific embodiments of the invention, it is not to be understood that the invention is limited to the specific process described. Various modifications thereof in detail and in the arrangement and combination of the parts. may be made by those skilled in the art, without departure from the invention.

What I claim is 1. The process of manufacturing leather belting "which consists in laying a number of hides and cementin them one upon another over substantially t eir entire area to. form a pile of hides cemented together and cutting therefrom portions of a width corresponding to the depth of the pile and of a thickness corresponding to the distance between successive cuts and suitable to produce a substantial flexibility whereby a flexible belt is produced composed of adjacent longitudinal strips already cemented together.

2. The process of manufacturing leather belting which consists in laying a number of sheets of the fleshy portion of hides and cementing them one upon another over substantially their entire area to form a pile of hides cemented together and cutting therefrom portions of a width corresponding to the depth of the pile and of a thickness corresponding to the distance between successive cuts and suitable to produce a substantisl ilGXiiDiiiLy whereby a flexible belt is pro- 1 the successive sheets in e layer overlapping duct-d composed of adjacent iongitudinel strips already cemented together The 7 process of manufacturing belting which consists in uniting e plurality of sheets end to end in a layer, superposing a number of such layers upon eaoh other to form a pile, and cutting the heiting therefrom with its Width corresponding to the depth of the pile, whereby a, belt of any desired length may be made with one straight cut.

4. The process of manufacturing belting which consists in uniting a plurality oi sheets end to end in a layer, superposing a number of su-ih layers upon each other to form at pile,

end to end and the joints in the successive layers being stag ereti, and cutting the belting therefrom with its width corresponding to the depth of the pile, whereby it belt of any desired length may he made with one straight out and with the adjacent strips staggered and each strip having hipped end joints.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EDMUND A. USINAL Witnesses: V

Downer) Alisnwi, THEODORE T. SNELL.

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